During a time when so many businesses are closed, a key to success is staying connected to your customers. While you may not be able to connect face to face, you can virtually.

Everyone is on social media and chances are so are your customers. Now especially, customers are looking to social media for updates on businesses during quarantine.

Whether you’re a new business or are seasoned in your industry, social media is a must for your digital marketing strategy. Using social media helps increase brand awareness, can generate leads, boosts sales and can ultimately help grow your business.

Here are a few tips for getting started.

Research Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms are not created equal. Each has its own medium and message that are most successful. The key is to pick a platform that is most popular with your target audience.

Facebook – Facebook keeps you connected with others and is a platform for sharing and expressing opinions.

Twitter – Twitter is best for sharing short messages, in real time.

Instagram – Instagram is a visual platform and a place to show off your photography skills.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is business oriented and the best platform for networking.

Pinterest – Pinterest is a platform for sharing inspiration and ideas related to hobbies and interests.

Getting Started

Setting up social media accounts for your business is simple. Each platform requires you to provide basic information about your business including name, description, and category of business, as well as include a profile picture or logo. Facebook and LinkedIn both require a personal page in order to set up a business page. Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest allow you to create a business page without having a personal account.

For step by step instructions on setting up an account for each platform, head here.

Posting Content 

Coming up with content to post on social media can be tough. The important thing to note is that you should post relevant content. Do not post for the sake of posting.  Provide useful information that users will be engaged in and hopefully share with others. Pay attention to what works well and what your audience engages with the most.

Your social media profiles are an extension of your brand, so you should have a consistent logo, color palette, and aesthetic across all your platforms. This could include coming up a with style guide or template for creating consistent, on-brand content on your feed. If your social media feeds and profiles are consistent, then your visitors will form brand awareness.

Canva is a great tool for creating engaging images. The drag-and-drop style design tool offers hundreds of professional templates, design elements, and fonts and color palettes to create social media posts for your business.

Look for content ideas? Here is a good list to get you started.

Set goals and Analyze

Your social media posts should serve a purpose, and you should have goals that are measurable and attainable. Do you want to grow your brand, increase sales, or drive leads? Likes, comments, and shares are a good measure of the success of your social media strategies.

Social media analytics can also provide valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, their interests, and how they interact with your brand on social.

Many social media platforms offer simple, built in analytics. There are also tools that can pull analytics from all of your social media platforms, so that you can easily see how your posts are performing overall.   Hootsuite, Sprout and Agora Pulse are great programs to get you started.

Social Media Advertising

Getting consumers to engage on social media is becoming harder and harder, and paid campaigns can be the way to go to reach your audience. Each social media platform offers advertising options that can help get your content into the hands of your target audience.

Social media advertising, unlike some traditional advertising, allows you to target a very specific group of consumers to advertise to. You can narrow down an audience by location, demographics, interests, keywords used in searches, and more.

Social media advertising can be done on any budget. The more you spend, the larger the audience you will reach.

For an in-depth look at social media advertising options, click here.